FROM THE COLLECTION OF SUSAN & ALLEN COLES. HOWARD A. TERPNING (American, b.1927). A Winter Trail, 1975. Oil on canvas...

Description

FROM THE COLLECTION OF SUSAN & ALLEN COLES

HOWARD A. TERPNING (American, b.1927)
A Winter Trail, 1975
Oil on canvas
24 x 18 inches (61.0 x 45.7 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: Terpning / 75
Inscribed verso: A Winter Trail / Howard Terpning

No other modern artist of the West has garnered more critical or popular acclaim for his vivid paintings of historic Native American culture than Howard Terpning. He has been honored with retrospective exhibitions at major museums and has received numerous honors at such events as the annual exhibition and sale of works by the Cowboy Artists of America at the Phoenix Art Museum and the Prix de West purchase award at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. He is one of only three artists to receive the Eiteljorg Award, presented by the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis, for outstanding achievement in the field of American Art. His work is highly sought-after by collectors across the country. In his eyes, however, his greatest achievement is perhaps his acceptance as a trusted friend of the Blackfeet and other native tribes.

His work presents their history and culture with authenticity, sensitivity, and great feeling. In a long and very productive career, he has succeeded in telling an extensive history of Native Americans from many different viewpoints and focusing on many different aspects of native life. He has not confined his attention to any one facet of their history, and has included images of both conflict and peace, of domestic life and spiritual concerns. He has presented an unfolding history of these cultures including both male and female perspectives. A natural storyteller, Terpning is able to take historical research and turn it into compelling and mesmerizing pictures that bring the viewer into a different time and place. His paintings transcend mere historical authenticity to give the viewer a sense of what it must have felt like to be riding across the plains or fording a mountain stream. Terpning combines his ability to paint evocative landscapes with his skill at depicting the character and personality of his subjects. His intent is to give the viewer a sense of "being there." He once said of his paintings, "Hopefully, what an artist does is strike a chord within other people. People say my painting is emotional. They say that when they look at my paintings, they feel like I've been there or experienced firsthand what I've painted. When I get this kind of response, I am very gratified."

That sort of response is no doubt just the sort that he achieves with Winter Trail, a painting that evokes a true sense of the bitter cold of mountain winters. In the painting, two mounted Indians make their way down a snow covered mountain pass emerging from the deep woods into the howling wind of the clearing. Terpning has said that in these winter paintings, he is trying to interpret in a convincing fashion what the Plains people referred to as the time of the "Cold Maker." In this painting, as he has done in numerous others, he successfully achieves his goal.


More information about HOWARD A. TERPNING. See also: Terpning, Howard A., Howard A. Terpning Artist.

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